Sumter County Board of Commissioners announce intent to opt out of Homestead Exemption

Published 2:11 pm Monday, January 13, 2025

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Sumter County Board of Commissioners

The Sumter County Board of Commissioners today announces its intentions to seek public comment concerning opting out of the statewide adjusted base year ad valorem homestead exemption for Sumter County.

This floating homestead exemptions based on that base year assessment if enacted would allow for increased exemptions to match the inflationary growth on homesteaded property in Sumter County.

The County has decided to seek public comment on the homestead exemptions due to the negative impact on the remaining portions of the digest effecting the non-homesteaded residential and rental properties, agricultural land and the commercial/industrial portion of the digest.

The new exemption would lock in the values used to calculate the adjusted base to the 2024 values for homesteaded property only. These current values are not representative of a true and fair assessment as reflected by the county’s Sales Ratio Report from the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts. That report shows the assessed values at only 32% instead of the required 38-42% range. Placing a freeze at these base values would lock-in the existing inequities for the future. The freeze could result in two identical properties potentially having different values.

The floating homestead exemption would hurt the future economic growth of Sumter County by shifting the tax burden from the homesteaded property to the commercial/industrial part of the digest.

All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this opt out process to be held at the Sumter County Courthouse Board of Commissioner’s Board Room located at 500 W. Lamar St. Americus, GA 31709 on:

January 16, 2025, at 9:00AM

January 16, 2025, at 6:00PM

January 23, 2025, at 9:00AM

A called meeting will be held January 23, 2025, at 9:30AM or immediately at the close of the public hearing.